York Historic Environment Record

Houses, Nos. 6, 10 (Fig. 65), with the yard and subsidiary buildings, formed in the 18th century a single property in a number of tenancies. The freehold belonged to John Playter, a coal merchant, who sold it in 1788 to John Dodsworth, ironmonger, and John Dodsworth, brewer, for £850 (YCA, E.95, f. 67). The premises later passed to Thomas Cattley, who in 1819 conveyed them to Caleb Fletcher and Christopher Scarr, wholesale grocers (E.97, f. 93v.). The yard was still used in part as a coal-yard, but there was also a small garden containing a garden house, and the main house was said to have been occupied by John Playter, John Dodsworth brewer, and Thomas Cattley successively as a private residence. This refers to No. 10, built in the first half of the 18th century, along with some of the subsidiary buildings towards the river, probably warehouses; these also included a timber-framed building of the late 16th century with a roof carried on sole-pieces and with diminishing principals.

Though fragments of reused timber found during demolition might suggest that No. 10 was on the site of an earlier timber-framed house, it was No. 6 that appeared to have been the original messuage, built in the late 16th century. This was originally of three storeys and attics, jettied to North Street and to the narrow lane on the S.; its top storey was removed in the 18th century, leaving part of a 17th-century staircase in the front attic. Along the lane stretched a rear wing, in part of late 16th-century build, but extended in the late 17th century, when the range was cased in brick. An important staircase was built in this range and the plaster ceiling and part of the main stair light are of c. 1700. In the first half of the 18th century, when No. 10 was built, the whole front to North Street was redesigned as a single unit to include No. 6, and faced in brick. Early in the 19th century new sashes with thin glazing bars were inserted in most windows, and a shop front in the ground floor of No. 10. Before 1850 (OS 1852) the central passageway between Nos. 6 and 10 had been widened to S. to form the present carriageway to the yard.

The front to North Street is in Flemish bond and has a brick plinth with weathered offset. The shop front in No. 10 takes the place of two original windows, of which the flat arches remain. On the first floor are three tall sash windows with stone sills and flush frames in each half of the front, and a blind recess placed centrally. The N. window retains its original heavy glazing bars. The coved lath-and-plaster cornice to No. 10 is original; to S., over the central bay and No. 6 is a late 18th-century timber cornice with modillions. The roofs are covered partly with pantiles, partly with plain tiles. The back of the main range is of brickwork in random bond. The S. end of the front range has been underpinned with brickwork of the early 19th century, but the framed jetty survives on the first floor. The S. elevation of the back wing, towards the lane, has a brick casing of the late 17th century throughout. Above the ground floor is evidence of a former moulded brick and tile string-course, which survives on the E. end. There is a brick plinth cut by a wide modern opening beneath two windows (early 18th-century). The staircase window consists of two late 17th-century mullioned and transomed windows placed one above the other with inserted glazing bars of the late 18th century.

There are cellars built of stone and brick beneath the whole building, with timber ceilings. In No. 6 the ground floor front room, though converted to a shop, retains an important decorated plaster ceiling of the first half of the 17th century shortened to N. by the formation of the carriageway. In the back range some of the rooms have stop-chamfered beams carrying chamfered ceiling joists of the 17th century. The late 18th-century staircase has turned balusters with square knops and a swept rail, without newels. Above is a plaster ceiling with a shaped panel containing a wreath surrounded by leaves and flowers within an oval (c. 1700). When the staircase in this position was formed in the 17th century, a main chimney stack was removed, but the 16th-century breast still remains in the cellars.

Above the front range the Attics are reached by a late stair formed within the remains of the original staircase, of which a moulded rail and two oak newels with attached half-balusters survive. This staircase evidently led to the upper storey, taken down when the house was transformed and refronted in the early 18th century. The roof is of the early 18th century, of softwood, with large tie-beams (10 in. by 8 in.) and principals and collars (all 12 in. by 3 in.). Over the back range is a loft containing two original 17th-century oak trusses.

In No. 10 the front room on the Ground Floor, now a shop, is lined with bolection-moulded fielded panels, under a heavy cornice. In the E. wall is a door of three fielded panels, with original L-hinges. In the S.E. corner is a fireplace with Adamesque surround and a Carron hob-grate decorated with trumpets, entwined ribbons and Prince of Wales feathers, probably for George IV when Prince Regent (1810–20). The Staircase has square newels, a heavy handrail and turned balusters (Fig. 17f), two to each tread; every third baluster has a twisted shaft. On the First Floor the main front room has painted pine panelling with bolection mouldings and raised panels.

Demolished 1963; the 17th-century plaster ceiling from No. 6 re-erected in the King's Manor for the University of York.

An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 3, South west. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1972. Monument 101.

NMR Information

NMR Record 1
BF060938 6 NORTH STREET, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

NMR Record 2
Site of Number 6 North Street, a late 16th century house, with alterations in the late 17th, first half of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The building had been demolished by 1911 and in 1988 the site was occupied by a printing works.

BF060938 6 NORTH STREET, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

Victoria County History, 1961, Victoria County History: A History of the County of York - The City of York (Monograph). SYO1655.

RCHME, 1972, RCHME City of York Volume III South-west of the Ouse (Monograph). SYO64.

NMR, 2019, NMR data (Digital archive). SYO2214.